Standard Phone Charger?

Tired of having to throw away perfectly good cables and connectors when you buy a new mobile device? Help may be on the way thanks to the EU. The European Union has reached an agreement with 14 mobile phone manufacturers to use a common standard for phone chargers. The charger will be based on the Micro USB standard, which is already widely used for various computer and mobile devices.

There are a few caveats:

·         This agreement will only legally apply within the 27-nation EU, but due to the sheer scale of the European market, it's hoped that this policy will be implemented around the world.
·         The agreement only applies to data-enabled phones (i.e. smartphones). Still, in the near future, virtually all phones will be data-enabled.
·         Companies can still have their own proprietary plugs to support connections to legacy devices, but those that do so will have to supply adaptors to the new EU standard.